Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Loses Preliminary Motion In Discrimination Suit

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Supply: Raymond Boyd / Getty

When journalist Alexis Johnson sued her former employer, the Pittsburgh Publish-Gazette underestimated defending its actions in court docket. However Johnson has made it by way of at the least one preliminary hurdle on her street to restoration.

A federal decide denied a movement to dismiss filed by PG Publishing, based on Law360. PG Publishing, the operator of the Publish-Gazette, has tried to argue {that a} resolution to ban Johnson from overlaying racial justice protests final summer season was purely an “editorial” resolution.

Regulation 360 reported that in denying the movement to dismiss, U.S. District Choose J. Nicholas Ranjan discovered the writer didn’t keep an absolute discretion vis-a-vis the First Modification in “any and all discriminatory personnel choices.”

“Ms. Johnson alleges that PG Publishing re-assigned her to cowl much less essential and publicized information tales due to her race and guarded exercise,” wrote Ranjan.” “PG Publishing disputes this, arguing that Ms. Johnson remained assigned to the identical ‘beat’ and was merely precluded from overlaying a number of particular tales she had requested. The clarification or decision of this factual dispute is critical earlier than the court docket can rule on PG Publishing’s First Modification protection.”

Johnson is certainly one of two Black journalists who alleged administration pulled them from protection of protests turned uprisings that occurred within the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s killings. The Publish-Gazette claimed Johnson confirmed “bias” in a tweet poking enjoyable on the disparity in response to white attendees after a live performance in comparison with racial justice protestors.

As soon as Johnson’s story got here to gentle, the backlash was swift from all corners of the web. However as a substitute of responding and adjusting in type, the Publish-Gazette doubled down. Upset on the lawsuit, the Publish-Gazette the Pittsburgh Fee on Human Relations claiming the entity was prohibited from listening to Johnson’s claims.

As beforehand lined by NewsOne, the Publish-Gazette’s former government editor responded very poorly to the backlash. Misusing editorial privilege in a model of “I’ve a Black good friend,” Keith C. Burris claimed, “no newspaper in America, whether or not thought of over the previous 100 years or 100 days or 100 hours, has devoted extra time, phrases or house to questions of discrimination, race prejudice, or justice than the Publish-Gazette.”

Burris, a controversial determine lengthy earlier than Johnson’s case, beforehand tried to go off an unsigned editorial that claimed racism was the “new McCarthyism.”

Johnson moved on to working for Vice Information in October. Her reprimand and the very public meltdown of Burris continues as a lesson of the inner points inside newsrooms that influence significant protection of points impacting Black communities.

See Additionally:

If Black Media Doesn’t Inform The Reality About This Nation, It Gained’t Be Informed

Pittsburgh Editor’s ‘Dehumanizing’ Op-Ed Denies Stories Of Barring Black Journalists From Protecting George Floyd Protests